Hardcover Fiction. 342 pages. LJS&S Publishing. $23.95.
Release Date: May 11, 2011. Genre: Science Fiction.
The paintbrush I use is history, and history paints the same picture repeatedly. Large centralized governments always cause internal collapse and ultimately destruction of the masses. All governmental evils are justified and rationalized, as necessary, to maintain the all-powerful, all-knowing, current leaders for the good of society. – Doc Lucky Meisenheimer, The Immune.
Doc Lucky Meisenheimer’s science fiction thriller with political intrigue, The Immune, is being hailed as a prospective masterpiece of American fiction. The Immune is the winner of the 2012 International Book Award, Indie Excellence Award, and is a finalist in the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards in the category of science fiction. It is a hot ticket item and consistently checked out of all branches of the Orange County Public Library. Last but not least, it is already being taught in literature classes of Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, FL.
In The Immune, Meisenheimer has fashioned a capacious yet intricately ordered narrative that in its majestic sweep seems to capture multiple themes executed in a fast-paced, action/adventure plot. Furiously ingenious at this stage in his writing career, Meisenheimer has achieved an incredible feat of imagination, intellect, and matchless writing talent within The Immune, which is triggering fiery debate, strong opinions, and much rhapsodizing over his shocking plot twists and turns.
Mainstream readers are deeming The Immune as an entertaining, often humorous, and sometimes terrifying escapade of one man’s thirst for vengeance against the deadly stings of biogenetically manufactured creatures and their maniacal, Hilter-esqe inventor, Joseph Sengele. The politically astute have compared the work of Meisenheimer to Heinlein, as his story could be a libertarian manifesto advocating individual liberty, free will, and a lack of government regulation and oversight on matters of the economy. Literary academics are perceiving it as a beacon lighting the way for a new kind of novel, as Meisenheimer has cracked open the opaque shell of postmodernism, and inserted in its place the warm, beating heart of authentic humanism. Like other great literary trailblazers, Meisenheimer conveys the drama of his protagonist’s interior life while vividly conveying a world on the brink of total annihilation. As his contemporaries diminish the place of the single human being in complex plot conceptualizations, Meisenheimer has enlarged it while evoking empathy, excitement, revulsion, amusement, a thirst for justice, and sleepless nights of rapid page turning within his readers.
John Long, a distinguished physician and avid swimmer, and his fiancé, Cassandra, emerge from a romantic rendezvous in Grand Cayman only to discover the shocking news of massive deaths occurring across the world from the virulent, lethal stings of a biogenetically manufactured phenomenon named airwars. Such creatures resemble gargantuan Man O’ Wars which have gone airborne, mercilessly wounding and killing seemingly random, innocent souls. A rapidly formed world government, entitled the Airwar Scientific Council (consisting of scientists, politicians, and military members) emerges to disseminate world policy to all governments, resulting in the amelioration of free speech and calling for total gun confiscation.
John Long’s seemingly idyllic life and thriving practice in Orlando, FL come to a screeching halt with the disappearance and announced death of his fiancé in the midst of the chaos. Consumed with grief and burning rage, John confronts and surprisingly defeats his first airwar discovered when its monstrous self is siphoning water in Orlando’s Lake Eola. His murder of the first airwar by suffocation was impulsive, dangerous, and driven by reckless fury, earning him massive fame for being one of the rare, extraordinary individuals who are immune to the poisonous, paralyzing stings.
Much to our horror, readers discover that such “Immunes” are surreptitiously and forcefully sent to a processing plant owned and operated by the government, where they are tortured and skinned alive in order to extract proteins secreted from an Immune’s sebaceous glands used to manufacture aerosol sprays providing members of the Airwar Scientific Council protection from the deadly airwar stings.
However, John’s destiny is salvaged by the “ultimate PR genius of the world,” Admiral Beckwourth, who restores humanity’s faith in government intervention to the airwar crisis by formulating an “Immune Corp” attack force, with John Long as their leader. Readers will become immersed in Meisenheimer’s triumphs of characterizing the Immune Corp team members as they endeavor to kill and destroy as many airwars as possible. Meisenheimer paints one terrifying airwar attack scene after the other with vivid detail and enthralling description of the various types of airwars populating the sky, while instilling admiration for John’s bravery and catalyzing cathartic release with each successful airwar downing.
The plot thickens as we discover an advanced, alien race (referred to as Krones) have contacted prominent world leaders with promises of opportunities “beyond their wildest dreams” – including immortality – in return for their cooperation with their plot of selecting political leaders, key military personnel, scientists, and their families as “The Chosen.” Attitudes, intellect, political strength, compatibility, and one’s propensity for even treachery were considered behind their selection, thus reminiscent of Nazi endeavors to create an ideal, Aryan race.
We discover the Krones are the one who have actually created airwars as a diversion tactic in order to prepare the earth for their alien strike force involving 60-foot tsunamis (with the advanced application of force fields) to wipe out the majority of humanity in preparation for a Krone colonization of the earth, in which “The Chosen” are supposedly to be saved.
However, one intrepid and ingenious character, Admiral Beckwourth, cultivates a brilliant plot coined by Meisenheimer as an “FS Maneuver”, which is a keystone of public relations campaigns and “a deception hiding an underlying agenda.” With audacity and intrepid valor, Beckwourth endeavors to annihilate the greatest alien, military force in the history of the earth to save humanity from an apocalypse.
Does he succeed? Is his mission accomplished? I highly recommend that you purchase The Immune by Doc Lucky Meisenheimer to find out. Five stars out of five for this breakout novel that can be read for sheer entertainment or as a serious work of dystopian, allegorical literature. Similar to Orwell, Huxley, and H.G. Wells, Meisenheimer has made a phenomenal contribution to the genre of science fiction.
